Droplet merging on a lab-on-a-chip platform by uniform magnetic fields

Droplet microfluidics offers a range of Lab-on-a-chip (LoC) applications. However, wireless and programmable manipulation of such droplets is a challenge. We address this challenge by experimental and modelling studies of uniform magnetic field induced merging of ferrofluid based droplets. Control o...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Varma, Vijaykumar Babulalji, Ray, Ayan, Wang, Zhao Meng, Wang, Zhi Ping, Ramanujan, Raju Vijayaraghavan
Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/80800
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/46605
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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Summary:Droplet microfluidics offers a range of Lab-on-a-chip (LoC) applications. However, wireless and programmable manipulation of such droplets is a challenge. We address this challenge by experimental and modelling studies of uniform magnetic field induced merging of ferrofluid based droplets. Control of droplet velocity and merging was achieved through uniform magnetic field and flow rate ratio. Conditions for droplet merging with respect to droplet velocity were studied. Merging and mixing of colour dye + magnetite composite droplets was demonstrated. Our experimental and numerical results are in good agreement. These studies are useful for wireless and programmable droplet merging as well as mixing relevant to biosensing, bioassay, microfluidic-based synthesis, reaction kinetics, and magnetochemistry.